About
Me
Anime fan currently living between Malaysia and Japan…
Was born in Malaysia, spent one year in high school in Canada. Went to the University of Michigan where I was part of Animania, the University of Michigan Japanese Animation Film Society (otherwise known as that huge midwest anime club with the six hour long monthly screenings and until-early-morning unofficial gaming sessions). It was a good four years ^^
Have lived a total of six and a half years in Japan so the Japanese is pretty good if nowhere near perfect. Have been a fan of Shiina Hekiru since 1998, more than 10 years (!) O_o Time flies…
Favourites
Anime (Will forever have a special place in my heart)
- Vampire Princess Miyu OVA
- Simoun
- Ghost in the Shell SAC, SAC 2nd GIG
- Escaflowne (TV)
- Utena (TV)
- Laputa Castle in the Sky
- Patlabor the Movie
- Black Magic M-66
- Please Save My Earth
- Shamanic Princess
- X (Promotion video)
Anime (Sentimentally good for some reason)
- Kimagure Orange Road (TV)
- Bakuretsu Hunter
- Bubblegum Crisis Ep 5
- Bakuen Campus Guardress
- Miyuki-chan in Wonderland
- Record of Lodoss War OVA
- Detonator Orgun
- Gunbuster Top wo Nerae!
- Magic Knight Rayearth 1, 2 (TV)
- Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon R
- Yotoden (OVA)
Music OST
- Kajiura Yuuki (just about everything!)
- Technosoft (Elemental Master, Thunderforce III, Herzog Zwei)
- Kawai Kenji (much of his stuff)
- Kanno Yoko (Escaflowne, Macross Plus, GitS)
- Music for Simoun, Miyazaki movies, Final Fantasy Advent Children, Utena, Kimagure Orange Road
- Music for Bare Knuckle, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy I-VII, Rayearth RPG, Dracula X
Games
- Phantasy Star II
- Final Fantasy IV, VII
- Chrono Trigger
- Vagrant Story
- Magic Knight Rayearth
- Bare Knuckle 1, 2
- Herzog Zwei
- Metroid SNES
- Dracula X PSX
- Virtual On (arcade version)
- Monster Hunter Portable 2nd
- Armored Core 1
- Soul Edge
- King of Fighters 94, 95, 96
- Dune (PC)
The Blog
Otherwise known as, the very first post on this blog, circa 1/4/2005 9:38 pm
*phew* YAY! Okay after 1 day’s worth of CSS and HTML surgery on WordPress, we’re finally ready to roll! Arise, oh new website of mine, No Make Girl! Aside from more cosmetic changes, the only thing left is to start filling this page up with content.
That’s right, content, yeah! Because Owarinaki Tabibito (which means “traveller with no end”, in Japanese) isn’t meant to be a blog; it’s a homepage about my interests and thoughts. It happens to look like a blog because WordPress was an easier way to set up a website than coding static pages by hand. I envisioned this site to hold “postings” on stuff I like – perhaps in short list format for the older stuff I used into be into, and then more detailed writings on current interests. Unfortunately my interests are pretty wide ranging and tend to change (what my friends in college called “Flavour of the Month” syndrome). When I tried to think up a way to organize it all, it ended up being a cross-linking nightmare. So I decided to go the database route, and hola, modern blogging software more or less fits. There are still some things I want to change, such as the way the categories and links are displayed, but overall hey I can’t argue with free software that lets me do this much with minimal effort. There, no excuse not to concentrate on writing, then!
But anyway, why would I want to put all this stuff down in writing?
Well, I’m what is commonly known as an otaku, the closest English equivalent of which is “geek”. Yeah, I know it’s negative, but hey, it’s an apt personality description in many respects. For example, I think what sets otaku apart from “normal” people is obsessiveness and the enormous urge to collect. Basically, if we like something, we like it a lot, and we’ll start wanting to collect everything that’s associated with it.
I was an anime otaku back in my college days, we had a club and we’d trade and collect tapes, and for my favourite shows I’d not just watch them or buy the LDs and soundtracks, I’d be hunting for posters and artbooks and other related stuff. Since I tend to be visually attracted to anime and game content, I’d be collect images like mad.
Then I moved to Japan, lost interest in anime, but became a huge (perhaps ultimate?! ^_^) fan of this singer called Shiina Hekiru. Yep, collected all CDs, went to all the concerts and events, bought every magazine she appeared in, etc. No I did not stalk her, I’m a good fan :P) Nowadays the craze has died down, it being 7 years now, but she still has a very important place in my heart.
And perhaps that’s why I’m making this page. It’s ostensibly about me, but really I should say it’s a repository for all the things I hold dear, both now and in the past. Aside from the two big ones up there, I was also into video games – mostly RPGs (FF, Phantasy Star, Dragon Quest), select fighting games (SFII, King of Fighters, Soul Edge), old school beat-em-ups and shooters (anyone remember Bare Knuckle, Golden Axe, Contra, Thunderforce, Elemental Master?), and side scrolling platformers (Metroid, Dracula X) – and music – heavy metal, orchestral anime soundtracks, non-sugary J-pop, 80′s, a bit of industrial and dance here and there – and mountains, lush green hikeable mountains.
I love all this stuff, or I loved it in the past, and for some reason I feel the need to put it down somewhere in writing, so that it won’t disappear. Because it makes up such a big part of who I am. The answer to “Who am I?” , that question that haunts us, is for me, “I am my memories.” What I remember makes me who I am, what I have experienced has left its mark on the way I think and act. And so in an effort to preserve better my existence to myself, though misguided or futile, I naturally feel the urge to put it all down in one place.
So that’s the internal selfish reason. It’s not that I want to announce myself to the world, or reach others. Of course, I would be delighted if other people found some of this drabble amusing, or even insightful or helpful. But in the end, to be honest, rather than self-publication I guess I just want some record of me for myself.
There is, however, one other, perhaps equally important, reason. Part of the impetus to making this page (project?) a reality was that I wanted those important to me (and by this I mean people who already know me, such as my family and my close friend) to know me better. I’m a pretty reserved person, don’t talk much about myself to friends. I’m an avid talker/evangelist on my interests, but only to those who share them. Otherwise, yeah, I try to keep it down. Was always afraid, you know, of going off on something with a person who’s just not into it. Dunno if this means I don’t bore people with extraneous talk on obscure otaku stuff, or I just wind up never revealing anything real about myself. Was, and still is, a big dilemma. “Does anyone know the real me?”
So, in the end, I guess you could say that this page, “No Make Girl’s Endless Journey”, is just my personal search for identity.
Hey, pretty deep, eh, for some blog? :)
PS, “No Make Girl” comes from the name of one of Hekiru’s albums. It’s a neat sounding phrase which Hekiru used to convey the image of someone who is sincere and doesn’t wear a mask. That type of personality was something I found really appealing about Hekiru, and yeah it just caught on.
